Anesthetic Awakenings
by eccentricityincarnate
Summary: "Are we pirates?" "Huh?" "We're all just pirates." "How profound of you." "Zzzz." Season 4 AU.


**Hey guys! I recently deleted my Tumblr for personal (a.k.a. time-consuming) reasons, but I'm thinking I'll come back! For now, here is a story that I posted on Tumblr a month or so ago that I was pretty proud of.**

**I don't own _Castle_! If I did, they'd probably be the proud parents of four kids, a dog, and a capuchin monkey.**

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><p>Anesthetic Awakenings<p>

_eccentricityincarnate_

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><p>"Hey."<p>

She leans in to card her hand through his hair, giggling when she sees his unfocused eyes try to hone in on her face.

She flinches at the realization of what she's done, wants to withdraw immediately, but forces her hand to remain there.

She can't be afraid of him, not when she's certain that someday…

"Kaaate," he mumbles with a goofy grin, and she can't help being pleased at the sound of her first name on his lips, no matter how drugged he might be. "What 'chu doing here?"

"Taking you home," she says softly.

"Well, sure is lucky for me," he drawls, and reaches out for her, probing for something in the air between them.

She frowns, offers him her hand.

Taking it in both of his, he raises it to his face and she feels her cheeks heat up, glancing over at the orthopedist observing with an amused expression. _Is he really…?_

It's at once uncoordinated and graceful, dopey and charming. His lips whisper across the back of her hand and she exhales shakily, something that might be a laugh or a sigh of pleasure.

Is he…is he _flirting _with her?

"All right, Casanova," she chuckles. "Let's get you to the loft to rest."

The doctor hands her a few instructional pamphlets and a prescription for heavier-duty pain meds, explaining the care needed for Castle's cast and assuring her that his sedation should wear off within a few hours.

All the while, Castle toys with her hair, twirling her curls around her fingers and a little frisson of happiness travels through her. She's glad she wore her hair down today. It's always seemed to captivate him, and more so now that he's loopy.

She takes Castle by the arm and guides him with a gentle hand on his back to sit up.

A few nurses gather to help ease him to the ground off of the examination table on one foot. At a critical point in the operation, he wobbles, palming Kate's waist to steady himself, earning a barely-audible gasp.

She doesn't think the move was entirely necessary, but she'll give him props for being so cunning in his current state.

He plops into the provided wheelchair with a grunt, and his leg is quickly elevated.

"Feel better, Mr. Castle!" the doctor calls out behind them as they begin to meander down the hall. "Take care, Mrs. Castle!"

She freezes, but recovers quickly and continues to wheel Castle in the direction of the elevator, hoping that Castle didn't catch the kindly man's mistake.

But, being Castle, he misses nothing. He swivels his torso around to gawk at her, eyes widening in boyish delight. "Are we married?"

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><p>She's relieved now that she made Ryan and Esposito wait in the car. They would probably tease her mercilessly upon witnessing everything that occurred in the doctor's office.<p>

After hoisting the near-delirious writer into his SUV, they're coasting along at a comfortable pace, letting him drift in and out of sleep in the backseat with Kate.

"How'd you fracture your tibia, Castle?" Esposito snickers during one of his waking periods, mischievous eyes appearing in the rearview mirror. "Pretending to be Batman?"

"Showing off for his daughter's friends while skiing," Kate replies for him, pinning him with a mock-severe look, "which he'll never do again."

Ryan cranes his neck back from the passenger seat. "Heh! Shadows with the NYPD and barely gets a scratch, only to hurt himself skiing."

Castle doesn't even register the friendly ribbing. "Kate," he moans. "We going to work?"

"No, Rick. We're going home." She winces at the implications of what she said – _his _home, not a shared home.

"But I gotta bring you coffee," he wheedles, and she huffs out a laugh at his devotion.

But he's dozed off again, head beginning to loll, so she gingerly tugs him so that he can lean on her.

She glares when Ryan and Esposito _aww _teasingly at the scene in the backseat.

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><p>The boys left soon after helping to lay Castle down on his – massive – mattress and standing back to watch him fall asleep.<p>

"Take good care of him, Kate," Ryan says, pecking her cheek.

"Yeah, no getting it on until he recovers, either, B," Esposito says with a smirk, his statement punctuated by a few obscene gestures from Ryan. Not to be outdone, he kisses her other cheek.

"You two are incorrigible," she mutters, and ushers them out the door.

Filling a glass of water, she pads back in to stand at his side, still marveling at his previously-unseen bedroom. A black-and-white photo of a lion adorns one wall, exuding masculinity and power. She curls her toes in the carpet and gazes at the numerous framed pictures of him and Alexis and Martha…and surprisingly, one of him and her, captured as they're grinning like idiots at each other.

Her chest flutters.

She has a feeling that there will be a lot more pictures of the two of them together in here at some point.

It's only a matter of time, she thinks, smiling to herself as she watches his chest rise and fall evenly.

Feeling bold, she traces the blue veins of his upturned wrist with one finger.

Somewhere in the middle of the summer, staring up at the ceiling of her father's cabin, with both literal and figurative holes making her chest feel empty and longing, she made her decision.

They're inevitable.

And they'd be magical.

She just has to find the courage and the strength that he already possesses.

He stirs then.

"Kaay?" he calls out groggily.

_Shit_. She should take her hand away, but she can't resist the pull of him. Them.

So she meets his eyes like a deer in headlights – tense, alarmed.

He blinks several times, gaze switching between her and her gentle ministrations.

His head drops back to his pillow. "Feels good," he groans, reaching his other arm up to stroke lightly at her elbow, engulf her forearm and slide up and down tenderly.

She swallows thickly, slowing her movements. Reluctantly, she relinquishes contact to pick up the glass and offer him water, before letting him return to blissful unconsciousness with his hand firmly clasped in hers.

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><p>"Where 'Lexis?"<p>

"Still skiing," she whispers. "I told her I'd take care of you."

"Good partner," he sighs, and succumbs to sleep again.

"Where am I?"

"At the loft, Castle."

"Oh."

"…"

"Zzzz."

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><p>"Are we pirates?"<p>

"Huh?"

"We're all just pirates."

"How profound of you."

"Zzzz."

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><p>The next time he wakes, it's with her in his bed.<p>

It's innocent, really – she dusts off one of his older volumes and eases onto the mattress, careful not to jounce it.

But then, minutes later, she sees him open his eyes and process the sight before him and she freezes again.

His face registers a mixture of awe, joy, lust, and…love.

He moans her name and her heart breaks.

She doesn't know what possesses her to lean down and gently capture his lips with hers.

He responds almost immediately, cupping her cheek in one hand and fisting her hair with the other. It's not sloppy, clumsy like one might expect.

_It's perfect_, she thinks, as a wet smack reverberates in the large room. Supporting herself with an arm braced on the other side of his shoulder, she mewls into his mouth and he releases a dark sound from the back of his throat.

They finally run out of air and break apart, but she remains close, arm falling limply across his chest and they smile at each other for a long moment.

Then something occurs to her and her eyebrows furrow.

"Richard Castle, if you don't remember this, I swear to God…"

He grins cheekily. "Nah. I've been sober for about half an hour."


End file.
